I listened to a Carey Nieuwhof podcast today. He interviewed an entrepreneur named Jared Hogue. Jared uttered five small words that moved me: Just Start and Stay Faithful. This blog post is the fruit of that statement. So, if anyone is out there. And interested. This is my start. Pray that I stay faithful. Here’s…
I spent the morning with our pastoral team. It was our first focused planning session since last spring. We looked at our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It was an interesting exercise. I think we’re still in the transition phase. We’re near the end but we’re not quite through it. Between 2008 and 2013…
Satan. The devil. The ancient serpent. The dragon. The adversary. The accuser. The opposer. The ruler of the kingdom of the air. The father of lies. Sometimes he comes near to me. I don’t like it. Last Thursday was one of those dark and lonely days. I find that he closes in when spiritual breakthroughs…
I’ve been working on a definition of the church. It’s for our upcoming sermon series. I’d like to develop a definition that would allow me to explore a single word from the definition each Sunday. The whole venture could take six to eight weeks. Here’s what I’ve got so far: 0 0 1 25 148…
“Get closer.” It came as God’s invitation to a distant pastor. Me. I’m exiting the most difficult ministry season of my life. It has been a year of wrestling with heaviness, fear, loneliness, and sin. But something is different now, after God’s invitation. I’m leaning in; I’m picking up the phone and calling people….
Lately, I’ve been thinking about farming. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not planning to forsake my ordination vows. Nor am I considering the bi-vocational option of preaching by day and raising chickens by night. Instead, I’ve been considering the origins of the pastoral office. Tonight I read this quote from God found in Ezekiel 34,…
Our team has some big ideas. Find out this Sunday at HMC.
I’m officially in a new office. While I was away on holidays my workspace was relocated (don’t worry, I agreed with the move before I left). My new space has a similar look to the former (squarish space with one window and one door) but now it’s in a low-traffic high-cinderblock laden section of the…
It’s been awhile. I’ve been neglectful lately. I’m sorry. I spent last week speaking in evening chapels at Mishewah family camp. It’s one of our denominational camps near Pembroke, Ontario. My family was there with a handful of others from HMC, a whole lot of people from other parts of the province, and countless blood-thristy…
I’m finally finished. I set a goal for myself back a year or two ago to read through Eugene Peterson’s 5 volume spiritual theology series. Tonight I turned the last page in my final book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. If you know anything about the series you’ll know that this book is actually…